Chapter 535 - An Alliance Like Never Before (2)

Muspelheim was the land of fire giants. this domain was in complete contrast to what Jotunheim looked like. The planet was entirely covered in flames and lava with patches of scorching land which could be seen as continents of this weird place. 

Other than the scorching temperature of the planet and seas made of lava, this planet wasn't all that different from the dozens of planets Arnold had conquered so far. The only issue was... the extraordinarily high temperature of the place acted as the first layer of defence for the fire giants. 

Most of the mortal organisms usually were burned to a crisp the moment they decided to approach them. Even lesser gods had problems while fighting the giants in their domain. However, the power of the giants was greatly reduced once they step out of their planet. 

Obviously, all this information was provided to Arnold by the remnants of system sama as well as his godly summons. 

While this information was useful, it ended up raising a lot of concerns about their plans to attack Muspelheim. Bringing mortals or regular undead summons with them was completely out of question. 

Which left Arnold with his elite summons. Sadly, Talos could not accompany them because Arnold did not want his metallic skeletal structure to suffer any damage. Well, Talos getting damaged wasn't his main concern. But it was the fact that it might take quite a while to repair him like that. 

But it wasn't like Talos didn't have a job to do. While Arnold and the rest of them would handle the fire giants, Talos with some of the remaining forces would make his way to the rest of the giants. However, he wouldn't go there as Talos, but as Arnold along with Thor's severed head. 

Arnold decided to do this because he was worried if the gods saw through his plan they would immediately recruit the rest of the giants against him. Which, to be honest, did not seem to be a great beginning to their battle.

Thus it was necessary for them to act quickly and simultaneously to sabotage Zeus' and Loki's plans like that. 

With everything planned and taken care of, they were ready to move out. 

***

Back in Muspelheim, everything was going great as usual. The other worlds might not have known this, but there was a legend that everything in the universe was created from their realm along with Niflheim. Even the sun and the moon were created from the sparks released from their realm. 

It was for all these reasons they believed that they should be the ones overseeing the welfare of the universe and not those Norse gods. Niflheim or realm of the dead, could not have contested them against this ideology as... well, they were already dead. Why should they be allowed to look after the universe?

While their claim about being the progenitor of everything was somewhat true. It wasn't all that one-sided as the fire giants claimed. Surtr knew the truth about the genesis of the realms, yet he kept his silence on the matter because he knew, as long as the fire giants believed in that tale, they would have great hatred towards the gods.

He could use this blind belief in faith and abuse it to make them do his bidding like he was doing now. However, putting one's faith in the unknowing could have unforeseen... complications.

Surtr was blinded by his love for Hela. But his empire wasn't. They could see him putting her interests above everything else and went the giants started feeling neglected and taken for granted, nothing good could come out of it. 

In a way, it could be said that Muspelheim was more like a nuclear bomb recently. If it hadn't been for the absolute hierarchy of their society, the bomb would have exploded a long time ago. They needed a spark... just one wrong move and they would not stop reminding their leader of who he was and who they were.

Just then a portal from Asgard was thrown open right in front of the capital city of Muspelheim. Out of the Bifrost, poured out countless valkyries and proud warriors. Odin, who had been waiting to open the gates of Valhalla, had done so and every proud and assertive warrior to ever been born and slain walked out of the gates... ready to battle again.

"I hope your strategy is fruitful, for the sake of this universe," Odin mumbled while watching the carnage opening the Valhalla would cause on Muspelheim. 

"Trust me... this is the only way to do things," Arnold replied with a confident yet uncaring expression, "This way, the giants will know you attacked them. However, since you are no longer the king of Asgard, they can not blame this on Baldr. It's a win-win situation for all of us."

"Also, it's worth mentioning that All-father has a perfectly good reason to attack them." Mimir chimed in as Odin looked at him with puzzled eyes, "Allow me to elaborate. Hela is Loki's... daughter and it's not a secret that she is involved with Surtr. So it is possible that Loki escaped and was hiding in Muspelheim."

"So this could be waved off as a raid to look for him and not to cause trouble with the giants..." Heimdall completed Mimir's thoughts while staring towards Arnold, "Or it could be depicted as a way for All-father to let go of the pain caused by Thor's death..."

'He is... I cannot believe that he thought about all this in mere moments.'

Heimdall's admiration for Arnold had shot up through the nine realms. He was practically the most ruthless yet calm strategist he had ever seen in his lifetime. But he wasn't the only one feeling like that. Everyone in Asgard was thinking the same thing... but some of them even viewed him as a bigger problem thanks to that. 

Arnold could sense it all. He was afraid one of them might realise his real intentions, but it didn't look like they did. What Mimir and Heimdall told the others was indeed correct. But the real reason why Arnold forced Odin to release Valhalla, was to make Asgard weaker. 

They would eventually turn against him. Maybe during the great war or after it, but they will. Why? Because they knew exactly what he was capable of and leaving him alive would be a foolish thing to do.

If he was in their shoes, he would have done the same.. Thus, by taking away Odin's ultimate weapon, he had started preparing for the inevitable.